An Egyptian court on Sunday postponed delivering its verdict in the retrial of three Al Jazeera TV journalists, a decision a defense lawyer said was to avoid bad publicity during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other dignitaries. The journalists deny the charges and Egypt's high court ordered a retrial in January. Mohamed Fahmy, a naturalized Canadian who has given up his Egyptian citizenship, and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were released on bail in February after more than a year in custody. . . more

Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel's leadership during the Greece crisis has given her conservatives a chance of winning an absolute majority if an election were held next week, an opinion poll on Sunday showed. Merkel's chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, dismissed that idea in an advanced release of a story to run in mass-selling daily Bild on Monday. The chancellor has ruled Germany since 2005 and now governs in coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD). . . more

(Reuters) - A manhunt was underway Sunday in Tennessee for the killer of a Memphis police officer who was fatally shot during a traffic stop on Saturday night, officials said. Sean Bolton, 33, died from multiple gunshot wounds after being discovered critically wounded at about 9:15 p.m. local time Saturday, Memphis police said. A citizen used the officer's radio to report the shooting, police said. Bolton had worked for the Memphis Police Department since October 2010. He is the third Memphis officer to be shot and killed in just over four years. ... . . more

By 6 a.m., Sam Clarke is usually already on a call with an Asian tech company halfway around the world. By the afternoon, she switches to calls in the U.S. And until she goes to bed, she keeps an eye on her email. On a bad week, Clarke,a sales manager for a software startup inSan Francisco, clocks in about 55 hours. In the tech industry,... . . more

Since Indiana opened its first state-run needle exchange last spring, Tara Burton, 25, has made weekly visits to turn over needles she used to shoot Opana, a prescription painkiller, up her track-marked arm. The one-story clinic in rural Scott County, Indiana, marks a sea change in states where conservative lawmakers had staunchly opposed old needles-for-new exchanges. An HIV epidemic in Indiana and a rise in Hepatitis C cases in Kentucky helped push those states to pass laws allowing communities to open needle exchanges. . . more

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court on Sunday postponed for the second time the verdict in the retrial of Al Jazeera television journalists who have been charged with aiding a terrorist organisation, a reference to the banned Muslim Brotherhood, to Aug. 29. Mohamed Fahmy, a naturalised Canadian who has given up his Egyptian citizenship, and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were released on bail in February after spending more than a year in custody. A third Al Jazeera journalist, Australian Peter Greste, was deported in February. . . more

Chinese police are investigating if two distillers in the southwestern region of Guangxi added impotence treatment drug Viagra to their liquor in the latest food-safety scare in China. The Liuzhou Food and Drug Administration said that it found the Guikun Alcohol Plant and the Deshun Alcohol Plant in Guangxi's Liuzhou city were putting Sildenafil, more commonly known as Viagra, into three of their baijiu products. Baijiu is a fiery grain liquor that commands high prices in China. . . more

China will expand medical insurance to cover all critical illnesses for all urban and rural residents by the end of the year, the cabinet said on Sunday, the latest step in a plan to fix a healthcare system that has sparked public discontent. The State Council said 50 percent of the medical costs will be covered by insurance in a bid to "more effectively reduce the burden of medical expenses", in a statement posted on the government's website. President Xi Jinping's government has touted access to affordable healthcare as a key platform of his administration, underscoring the importance of meeting the needs of the nearly 1.4 billion people, many of whom have often complained of large out-of-pocket expenses due to low levels of insurance coverage. . . more

By Katie Reilly NEW YORK (Reuters) - A deadly outbreak of Legionnaires' disease, a severe type of pneumonia, has now killed four people and sickened 65 in the Bronx section of New York City since July 10, New York City health officials said on Saturday. This wave of Legionnaires', which officials have called unusual, is now more than five times the number of cases recorded in the last outbreak, in which 12 people in the Bronx fell ill in December 2014. The disease is caused by Legionella, a bacteria found in certain plumbing systems, including hot tubs, humidifiers, cooling towers and hot water tanks. . . more

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - A political battle over the use of fetal tissue in medical research has been reinvigorated by the release of undercover videos targeting Planned Parenthood officials. Newer, less-controversial technologies, including the reprogramming of adult skin cells to create specific types of stem cells, have rendered fetal tissue less central - though still important - to medical research, they said. Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology, said that much of tissue needed for research "can now be generated in the laboratory." At Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, for instance, only about 10 out of 8,000 active research protocols involve fetal tissue, according to an official at the Harvard-affiliated hospital who asked to remain anonymous. . . more

A New York City doctor, who made headlines after he was diagnosed with Ebola, said he hoped an experimental vaccine could be a way forward for a region decimated by the deadly virus. Craig Spencer, an emergency room physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, made headlines last year when he contracted Ebola after treating patients for the disease in Guinea. After his treatment Spencer returned to Guinea to treat patients and he got to see firsthand how the vaccine trial affected patients and health care workers. . . more

By Edith Honan NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan officials said on Friday they were considering conservationists' appeals to give two baby chimpanzees, rescued from possible traffickers in ebola-hit Liberia, sanctuary in a Kenyan reserve but public health fears were holding up transfer. Conservationists believe the animals had been victims of trafficking that sent baby chimps from West and Central Africa to Chinese zoos and private estates in the Middle East, where they can fetch as much as $25,000. Ebola has killed more than 11,200 people in West Africa since it broke out in December 2013. . . more

An Ebola test vaccine provided blanket protection in a field trial in Guinea, researchers said, possibly heralding "the beginning of the end" for the devastating West African outbreak that has killed thousands. The serum was 100 percent effective after a week in more than 7,600 people inoculated, according to results published in The Lancet medical journal and hailed as "extremely promising" by World Health Organization (WHO) chief Margaret Chan. The world was "on the verge of an effective Ebola vaccine," the UN's health agency said in a statement. . . more

By Karolos Grohmann KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Efforts to improve the water quality for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics are ongoing, Games organizers said on Saturday, adding the welfare of the athletes was a top priority after reports of severe pollution off the shores of the Brazilian metropolis. Privately commissioned tests of the water quality, where rowers, sailors and open water swimmers will be competing, revealed this week a high level of disease-causing viruses. The waters along Rio's Atlantic coast, including Guanabara Bay where sailing events will be held, have been polluted for years and successive governments have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on supposed clean-ups to little effect. . . more

An Indian court has concluded hearing a case filed by Nestle India challenging a local regulator's report that Maggi instant noodles contained excess lead, a lawyer for the company said. The Bombay High Court will give a judgment at a later date, Rajesh Batra said in a statement late on Friday. Nestle has been at the center of India's worst food scare in a decade after a regulator in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh in May said it found excess lead in a sample of the firm's popular Maggi noodles. . . more

By Karolos Grohmann KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Efforts to improve the water quality for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics are ongoing, Games organisers said on Saturday, adding the welfare of the athletes was a top priority after reports of severe pollution off the shores of the Brazilian metropolis. Privately commissioned tests of the water quality, where rowers, sailors and open water swimmers will be competing, revealed this week a high level of disease-causing viruses. "The bay is the most iconic part of the Rio 2016 legacy," Games communications chief Mario Andrada told the International Olympics Committee in a progress presentation just over a year before the Games start on Aug 5, 2016. . . more